“The obvious is painful and Maddie is dead”

by Miguel Ferreira

Knowing what you know today, could the investigation have gone into other paths? I’d advance with the reconstitution of facts, even against the decisions that were made by superiors at that time.
Do you admit any possibility that the child is still alive? As a father and as a policeman, I wish I was completely wrong, but unfortunately the evidence doesn’t leave any margin for hope or doubts: the obvious is painful and Madeleine is dead.

Could there have been an investigation strategy that would lead to the process not being archived? The only strategy would have been not to change the investigation’s coordinator. The coordinator was substituted so the process could be archived. At that time, it was the “politically correct” solution.

How do you classify the McCann couple? Survivors…

Were you ever contacted by them, or by their advisor, because of your book? I was never contacted by anyone from the McCann team. I was targeted with threats, with lawsuits, but it never materialised. I must confess I was disappointed…

Do you still think about the Maddie case in terms of joining pieces of the puzzle? Of trying to find loose ends? Alleys are not blind after all?

Yes… This case still resembles an Escher puzzle, one of those with 5000 pieces in a grey scale. The pieces all look the same and they don’t fit. With time, patience and persistence, the end result will happen.
What pieces of the process were underestimated, from your point of view? Many. I give you three examples: remember the denunciation that was made against David Payne in England on the 16th of May 2007; remember the statement from a lawyer that lives in Luz, who said she saw the boot of the car that was rented by the McCanns, where cadaver odour had been detected, open night after night. This witness was never formally questioned.

Other examples? I also remind you of Fiona Payne’s statements, under the rogatory letter, when she says that on the night from the 3rd to the 4th of May, she saw Kate McCann worried about the twins’ breathing, in an attitude that denounces fear and the knowledge of the effect of sedatives. Nothing was asked from Kate McCann.

What new information has been taken to the process? There is no new information in the process. The police and the court have been receiving messages that are forwarded by the couple, about sightings or psychic activities.

Do you miss being a policeman? Do you miss the PJ? I will always be a policeman and yes, I miss the PJ very much.

Are you recognised on the street? Do you recall any comment? A while ago, I was having dinner with my family in Portimão. An elderly gentleman came and spoke to me. He wanted to express his solidarity and started crying hard, unable to speak a word. It was his wife who told me about the feelings which that man had for me.
Does fame always come with a price, even when you attain it involuntarily? It was the end of a spotless career and many successes.

What projects do you have in professional terms? I’m working in the area of literary production. The book “The Truth of the Lie” will be edited in Belgium, Holland and France next week. Before the end of May, it will reach Germany. We still await the edition in English language, against the McCanns’ will.


source: 24horas, 04.05.2009

By Astro

Lower Third – Gonçalo Amaral promotes investigation to reopen the process

Voice Over: A man carrying a child in his arms in the night of the 3rd of May. This is the description made by Jane Tanner and the basis for the kidnapping theory.

Gonçalo Amaral: It’s a false testimony, it’s a lie. I affirm from here that it is a lie. And if that lady has any problems, she can make a claim against my person, so that I can prove to her that it is a lie.

Voice Over: It is one of the central images of the documentary, which is soon to be broadcast world-wide, made for the English Channel 4. The documentary filmed a month ago in Praia da Luz with Gerry and two of the friends of the McCann couple. Gonçalo Amaral speaks of a web of lies.

Gonçalo Amaral: As a document, that documentary that they made here, it’s important for the reopening of the process. It should be adjoined to the process, to understand the reasons for the lies, and we are going to comprehend various things. It’s important, quite important that document. I believe that if the Attorney General of the Republic is attentive, then he has to reopen the process.

Voice Over: It is exactly to reopen the process that the former coordinator of the Judiciary Police advances but in a different path. He has joined a group of former policeman to analyse the process, to send to the Attorney General a document with that request.

Gonçalo Amaral: They are police inspectors who came from important criminal areas, as the kidnapping department, sequestrations, homicide… They are policemen, Portuguese but as well from other countries. Namely in England where we are going to try to understand and verify, in terms of analyses, of that process; and after that day, the 2nd of October* what is still left to do.

Voice Over: Gonçalo Amaral speaks of diligences which were not performed, after his removal in October of 2007. The former coordinator of the Maddie case believes that the girl died on the 3rd of May, in Praia da Luz.



*2nd October 2007 - The day Judiciary Police Inspector Gonçalo Amaral was removed from coordinating the investigation to Madeleine McCann disappearance and not sacked. He then requested for his early retirement, to gain his full freedom of speech and wrote the book ‘Maddie, The Truth of the Lie’, available in book stores at most European countries, except in the UK.




By Astro

Interesting about Ms Tanner's comment re the twin's breathing! Look at what was not followed up though, startling!

pm wrote: Voice Over: A man carrying a child in his arms in the night of the 3rd of May. This is the description made by Jane Tanner and the basis for the kidnapping theory.

Gonçalo Amaral: It’s a false testimony, it’s a lie. I affirm from here that it is a lie. And if that lady has any problems, she can make a claim against my person, so that I can prove to her that it is a lie. By Astro

What a man !!! He has no intention on giving up on this. What a pathetic bunch the Tapas lot are compared to him. They are always whining and complaining. He just tells it like it is.

Were you ever contacted by them, or by their advisor, because of your book? I was never contacted by anyone from the McCann team. I was targeted with threats, with lawsuits, but it never materialised. I must confess I was disappointed…

With “some irony” and always defending the theory that Madeleine McCann died on the evening of the 3rd of May 2007, in the apartment in Praia da Luz, where she was spending holidays with her family, Gonçalo Amaral, a former Polícia Judiciária coordinator inspector, states to tvi24.pt that he has doubts whether the appearance of a corpse “would be enough to reopen the case”. Despite that, he adds, “prosecutors are not eternal, prime ministers are not eternal either. We live in a democracy and things are going to change”.

Two years after Maddie disappeared, the man who led the investigation for six months and ended up being removed from the case, states that, at the moment, “the will that exists is to keep everything silent, without talking much about the subject”. Nevertheless, he awaits “someone influent” with the courage to reopen the inquiry. “That person will come and say: ‘Let’s find out, once and for all, what happened here’”, he says, filled with hope.

From the investigation that he led, he draws two lessons. “Political pressure cannot exist within criminal investigations” is the first that he refers. But the second one is so much more personal: “We often say yes, but there’s always that one time when we can say no. We can abdicate from our careers and do some good in the search for justice and truth”.

“They wanted to fill us with sightings”

Having been removed from the case after controversial statements about his British counterparts, Gonçalo Amaral reaffirms his accusations and goes further: “There was information management done by the English police.” “A lot was concealed and they wanted to fill us with sightings”, he adds.

He offers two examples. The first denunciation associating suspicious behaviour by one of the members of the group of friends that was on holidays in the Algarve, David Payne, was made on the 16th of May 2007, by a doctor, to the British police. “The information arrived in Portugal in October, after I had already left”, he recalls.

But if this information arrived several months later, others were never seen. The former PJ recalls that, with the consent from Portuguese authorities, an appeal was made for tourists to send in photos from the day and the night of Maddie’s disappearance. The purpose was “to identify anyone suspicious who might appear looking at the family”, he says. But despite “much that arrived at the English police, none of those images ever reached us”.

Many diligences left to carry out

When questioned whether he is still investigating the case, Gonçalo Amaral refuses to use the term investigation because “he is dedicated to other things in life”. But he admits that he has been “in contact with other people, including retired policemen, both Portuguese and foreign” and that “the entire process is being analysed, in order to understand what was done and what diligences are left to carry out”.

Despite the archiving coming as no surprise, he defends that it was rushed and that “there is much left to clarify”. Like, for example, “to find out whether or not David Payne, one of the last persons to see Maddie, was with Kate in the apartment and bathed the children”. This name is actually a piece of the puzzle that he considers to be “crucial” to clarify “what really happened that day”.

Still, he insists: “What happened is in the process. There are indications that the little girl’s death happened in that space. Now, it is necessary to reopen the process to find out about the circumstances and the possible involvement of a third party, and to advance in that direction. That was what we were doing when I was removed”.


source: IOL Portugal Diário, 03.05.2009

By Astro

What a character Amaral is. Maybe the McCanns will do the lawsuits later. Fancy threatening someone thought. Just shows what they are.

And again he names David Payne.

He is very silent quiet isnt he?